


A Guide to Life in the 21st Century

by ezazahaz



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Character Study, Gen, I understood that Reference, Pop Culture
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-08-14
Updated: 2014-08-14
Packaged: 2018-02-13 02:52:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 608
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2134380
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ezazahaz/pseuds/ezazahaz
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Natasha didn’t have a notebook full of things people thought she needed to know to fit in.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Guide to Life in the 21st Century

**Author's Note:**

> So [this post](http://brandnewfashion.tumblr.com/post/93842432933/natasha-making-pop-culture-references-and-then) made me think, and I realized there’s no way Natasha watched War Games as a kid. She probably had to catch up on pop culture just as much as Steve did...

Steve Rogers was born in 1918, and disappeared in 1945. He missed a lot when he was asleep for almost seventy years. Everyone who met the newly returned Captain America had a suggestion about some key thing he had missed, something he needed to experience to catch up and fit into this modern world. He had a notebook filled with films, music, celebrities, events, and internet memes.

Natasha Romanoff was born in 1984. She’d been in this world for thirty years. But for more than twenty of those years, she didn’t really live in the world. She saw what her handlers wanted her to see, heard what her handlers wanted her to hear, did what her handlers wanted her to do. She knew as much of world events as they thought she needed to know. Entertainment was not a part of her life, beyond occasionally providing something to distract her victims long enough for her to do her job.

When she defected to SHIELD, to America, it was like awakening in a whole new world. She knew nothing of how ordinary people lived. She didn’t have a notebook full of things people thought she needed to know to fit in. Everyone who met the newly defected Black Widow tended to stay away from her, because of the (mostly true) stories they’d heard about her, or because they were sure she was still working for the Russians, or because she simply didn’t know how to interact with other human beings when she wasn’t trying to manipulate them or kill them.

So everyone stayed away--except Clint Barton. Clint had been her guide to this new life where she could protect innocent people instead of killing them. He also became her guide to this new world where she didn’t know if a name someone mentioned was a coworker, a celebrity, or a fictional character. He filled her in on current and historical events from an American perspective, but more importantly, he showed her television and movies, gave her books, and brought her to concerts. Pop culture references that had previously gone over her head eventually gave her the ability to contribute to a conversation, to connect with others, even to befriend some of her colleagues. Her knowledge of Dog Cops alone won her an invitation to a SHIELD team’s monthly trivia night at a local bar.

When she met Steve Rogers, Natasha knew he would face some of the same struggles she had, adjusting to a new world. She thought she could pay forward what Clint had done for her, become Steve’s guide to modern culture. Then she realized that, for as alone as he felt, Steve had the entire world wanting to help him in his journey. She tried not to feel jealous of the speed with which he seemed to be catching up. Still, sometimes she found herself deliberately making references he wouldn’t understand, just so she could explain, showing off her own (recently acquired) knowledge. It was petty, and it backfired frustratingly often, his impatient “I know”s often making her feel worse.

Eventually, though, she realized that more important than trivial pop culture knowledge was the close friendship she had formed with Clint while he introduced her to everything. Steve’s notebook of suggestions came from people in passing, everyone letting him do the legwork himself, no one sitting down with him to share in the experience of laughing at a reality show or crying over a Pixar movie. Just because everyone wanted to help didn’t mean anyone was giving him what he really needed: a friend.

And maybe that was something she could help him with.


End file.
